It was for missions 35 and 49. I got a metal of Conspicuous Bravery on mission 51 and nearly got my tail shot off in mission 52. I am now on mission 57 and it is getting progressively harder with the big ships I am having to fight.

I bet you have a custom ship by now....I know I did. I built a custom ship myself and gave it nothing but plectrons.

Every so often, when I'd made enough more $$, I'd modify the original template to include armor upgrades and such. I got to mission 93 before a freak salvo of 2 plectrons got in and wiped out all 4 of my command centers.

I'm playing a custom ship list. The enemy ships go way beyond anything in the standard Designs.dat file. To cut to the details, my game does NOT get easier until well over 100 missions. Even then, you can get shot to ribbons.

I wrote up the way to change your designs list a couple of years ago. It is still here in a thread somewhere.

Like I said - custom ships don't really improve beyond 150 credits in value (by which point you've pretty much filled the available component slots, and adding more shields isn't worth it it because it reduces performance) - and you can afford that well before mission 50.

That means by mission 50 there are going to be heaps of high value targets to destroy, while you'll still be flying a cheap ship yourself - which makes it very easy to get GCs, since the main determining factor is the relative values of your ship and those you destroy.
Powerful enemy ships may make it harder to survive, but they make it much easier to get GCs when you do.

Start Critical Mass and export any ships you want to have available in the new Designs.dat file. Before you export them, check that the "used by race" check boxes are all checked. You must export each ship that you want available whether for enemy use or for your custom ships list. Very Important, if you have a game in progress, you must import all ships that are currently used in that game, otherwise it can cause problems when you start that game up. Exit Critical Mass and go to the directory where the game program files are stored.

Copy your existing Designs.dat file and place that copy someplace safe. My preference is to copy and then paste it into the Critical Mass directory and then re-name it as Designs.sav. If you do this, you will have a copy of your designs file to go back to when and if you decide to quit using this modified version. The Designs.dat file can be found in the main Critical Mass directory.

Sketchy, I'm putting the below special file on my website just for you. When you pull it onto your computer, be sure to rename it Designs.dat exactly like your existing file. Use the above instructions and you will be off and playing at a level you've never played before.

Cool, thanks.
I downloaded it, and I'll give it a go in the next day or two.

EDIT:
I think something's gone a bit wrong - it forgets all the custom ships I import. I have to re-import them every time I run CM.

EDIT:
Currently on mission 43 (although not doing very well - out of practice).
The spidery ships are annoying, as stealthy ships usually are.
So far, the rest are pretty harmless though (far less of a threat than the Snake series of ships, for instance). I think they'd make good player-controlled ships.

Did you use the autosize feature? Some of the ships seem way too big, relative to their value.

EDIT:
I died
Mission 65, and I went head-to-head with a Warrior while flying my 128pt Wildcat. Only ever gonna be one winner there...